Ectoborn
by Pixiixixii
Summary: Everlost's post-Everfound peace is brief. Two new Afterlights have entered this in-between world, each bringing something that, combined, will leave its mark... forever.
1. Chapter 1

_Warning: this is set post-Everfound and there are __spoilers__._

_Also, I don't own the Everlost trilogy or any of Neal Shusterman's characters._

On a cold January day, six-year-old Brad Morgan sprinted out onto an ice-coated pond. His friend had dared him to run all the way around without falling, and he was determined to do just that. "You're gonna owe me five dollars," Brad taunted as he neared the finish. he spoke too soon, though, because as he stepped on a thin patch of ice, it broke and he fell through.

Suddenly submerged in freezing water, Brad frantically tried to swim to the surface. His body began to grow numb, his kicks turning into little more than leg spasms. Brad inhaled a lungful of icy liquid as his short life flashed before his eyes.

A tunnel formed before him, and Brad's fear evaporated. he was no longer cold, tired, or numb. Warmth flooded his body as he flew down the tunnel, reaching for the close-yet-distant light. Brad knew in his heart that he was dead, but suddenly this didn't seem to matter so much.

Brad grew closer, a smile spreading across his face as he touched the light... but it wouldn't take him. The calm he felt faded away, the light beginning to dim.

"No!" Brad screamed as he started to fall from the tunnel. He grabbed for the light, yanking fistfuls away, but nothing happened. Then Brad tumbled through the blacker-than-black walls, exhaustion overcame him, and he sank into a dreamless sleep.

Brad woke slowly, scared and confused. When he had fallen in, the pond had been covered with ice. The water around him had been murky and dark. Now multicolored leaves floated on the surface, casting shadows on the sandy bottom. Small fish swam past him, close enough to touch, though they had never gone near him before. What scared him most, though, was that although he was underwater, he didn't need to breathe.

The memories of the tunnel, and the light, began to return to him. Brad shook his head, trying to deny the unavoidable truth. Maybe he was dreaming. But as his mind searched for an explanation, a school of fish swam straight through him. This confirmed it: Brad was dead.

He tried to climb from the pond, each step putting him almost ankle-deep in the sand. This was normal, though, so Brad didn't find it strange that he was sinking into the ground. That is, he didn't find it strange until he was back on normally solid ground.

Brad's thick winter coat and snowpants were soaked, oozing water over the tops of his his too-small boots. His hat half-covered his eyes, but no matter how hard Brad tried to straighten it, he couldn't. The hat wouldn't budge. Water from the hat dripped into his eyes, blurring his vision. For this reason, everything being out of focus didn't seem that weird.

Brad spent so long looking around that he was in the earth past his knees by the time he realized that he was sinking. Panicked, he dragged himself out and started walking. That's when he realized he didn't know the way home.

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A/N: Hope you liked it! I have plans for Brad: crazy, Everlost-worthy plans. This story will have fairly short chapters and, hopefully, frequent updates.

Please review! It only takes five seconds and I LOVE reviews. ;D


	2. Chapter 2

_ I don't own the Everlost trilogy or any of Neal Shusterman's characters._

Josephine Walters, known to all as Josie, stared out the window of her eleventh-story bedroom. Her worst fears had been confirmed: the test was positive. Her hands, one still holding the test, shook at the thought of her parents' reaction. They would be angry, and then so disappointed. Josie couldn't bear the idea of facing them, because she wouldn't be their perfect little girl anymore. Not once they learned she was pregnant.

An escape occurred to her, enhanced by her desperation. If she jumped... her parents would never know. They would never know of her pregnancy, or the secret boyfriend she sneaked off to see in the dead of night. They would remember their perfect little girl, and that thought would comfort them when they discovered Josie's body.

Josie raised the window with shaking hands, taking one last look around the room she'd had for nearly sixteen years. Her eyes rested on her grandmother's mirror. Her face was pale, deathly pale, making the freckles across her nose stand out. They matched the brown flecks in her light blue eyes, eyes her mother had always said that she loved...

No. Josie needed to stop thinking about her parents, and about her ailing grandmother. They would recover and move on. It would be better this way, better than ever knowing what she had done. She climbed onto the narrow ledge, shut her eyes, and jumped.

She hit the ground hard. The tunnel formed before her, and Josie felt herself drawn toward the light. She fought against it, though. Josie was sure that judgment awaited her, and she wasn't ready for that day. It was a hard battle, but eventually the universe gave in. Josie crashed through the tunnel walls and drifted off to sleep.

Josie pushed herself into a sitting position, unable to feel anything but shock. How could she have survived that fall? She looked around. Apparently nobody had noticed her yet; even the grandmother-type women weren't looking. That was odd.

Even odder was the realization that, though she had definitely fallen eleven stories, Josie didn't seem to have any injuries. She wasn't even scraped. In fact, the only sign she had fallen at all was the gravel imbedded in her side.

That's when Josie realized that one person was looking at her: a boy about her age. The boy looked somehow more vivid than the rest of the background, even surrounded by more brightly-dressed people. He smiled and stood up, then crossed the street without even looking. Josie winced at how close he came to death by taxi.

"Hi," the boy said when he reached her, offering a hand. Josie took it, standing gingerly, but it didn't hurt. She didn't seem to have any wounds.

"Hi," Josie answered, picking at the gravel that clung to her light pink tank top.

"I'm Nick," the boy said, smiling. "What's your name?"

"Josie," Josie told him, still trying to work the gravel out of her top and cutoffs.

Nick produced a piece of paper and a pencil from the pocket of his leather jacket. "You might want to write that down," he said, handing them to her.

Josie started to ask why, then thought better of it and just did so. She handed the pencil and paper back to Nick, who then said, "Let's see if you have a coin in your pocket."

She reached into her pocket, and pulled out... the pregnancy test. Josie stared at it for a moment, then hurled it as far away as she could. She thought she saw it sink into the sidewalk, but that must have been a trick of the light.

"Try the other pockets," Nick told her. Josie complied, though she knew they were empty. To her surprise, she found a coin in her back pocket.

Nick smiled, holding out the paper. "I know a place where you can have your own apartment, for free."

Josie frowned. "What's the catch?"

"There isn't one," he replied. "You just have to do something different every day, and your rent only lasts a month."

"What about-"

"After the month," Nick said before she could finish, "you try this coin. When you're ready, it'll take you 'uptown'."

Something told Josie that she should accept his offer, so she did. "Okay."

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A/N: I've split the first chapter so that I'm not alternating POV's, and I plan on keeping it that way.

Please review!


	3. Chapter 3

Brad had been wandering for weeks, without any idea where he was or where to go. He had quickly learned about deadspots, had lost his coin, and hadn't seen any other Afterlights. Brad knew nothing of the phrases Mary Hightower had created, and simply called the deadspots "resting places". He himself, he believed, was a ghost.

Walking down a living-world street, Brad noted in the back of his mind that he sank more quickly here. Frustrated by his lack of vision, he yanked as hard as he could at his hat. With a sudden burst of willpower, Brad managed to yank it off. He stared at the soggy cap in his hand. He hadn't been able to get any of his other wet clothes off, no matter how hard he pulled, until now.

He hurled the knit hat at the ground, watching with pleasure as it quickly sank through the asphalt. Then, Brad looked around, able to really see for the first time in what felt like weeks. He froze, sinking past his knees, because he was home.

Though Brad didn't know it, Everlost had guided him. It had influenced his decisions, leading him out of the woods, onto a familiar street. Now, as he stared at the small, yellow house, Brad pulled himself out of the pavement. There was something strange about the house, something different, that kept him from simply sinking into the Earth.

Brad was still a greensoul, and his limbs shook slightly as he climbed the steps. He raised his hand to knock on the door, but it passed right through. The little boy sighed, and stepped through the painted wood.

Now, he was sinking rapidly through a worn wooden floor. Brad, nearly to his waist, grabbed for something, anything. He wrapped his small hand around a table leg just as his head sank through the floor.

Eventually, Brad sat on the table. Though the surface was now covered with water that had oozed from his saturated pants, he recognized it. His grandma's old nightstand, which his parents treasured, had fallen and splintered at his sixth birthday party. Brad didn't know why it was here, but it had saved him from sinking and he was grateful.

Brad stopped thinking about the table, though. He stopped thinking about everything, because his mother had just entered the room. She was blurry and faded, so he couldn't see the sadness in her eyes. He knew it was her, though. As Brad watched, his mom moved closer. Believing with all his might that she could see him, Brad held out his arms-

But she walked through him, reaching to straighten a picture on the wall. Still near enough to touch, Brad grabbed for her. Though his hands passed through at first, they somehow stuck deep inside. He pulled with all his might and will.

The emotion was so much stronger this time, so much more desperate than when he had pulled off the hat, that he was more than a match for the universe. Even as it fought back, a hole began to open. Brad's mother gasped as she began to move through. Then it was over, and she stood in front of him, her face more lined than he remembered and her hair more gray. She was still his mother, though, and as she stared at him, her feet began sinking into the ground. There was shock, but something more, in her voice as she asked, "Brad?"

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A/N: Sorry for the delay! School started and I've had more homework than ever. Please review!


	4. Chapter 4

Josie stood in the corner of her room, staring out the window. She looked down at her belly, the way she had every day for... what had it been, days? Weeks? Months? Nick came sometimes, trying to distract her, to pull her from this 'rut', but she always fell back into her comfortable routine.

So many of her memories had faded. Yet one thing was always in her mind: the baby inside her. Nick had told her, gently but firmly, that she was dead. Why, then, did her abdomen continue to grow?

There was a noticeable bump now, enough for people to pause and look back. This was Everlost. Afterlights didn't have babies... they couldn't. How was this possible?

Nick didn't seem much more than concerned, but Josie wasn't sure. The days had all blurred together, marked only by Nick's occasional visit and the growth of her 'memory' of a baby.

This was one of those days. Josie didn't turn as the door opened, or as Nick came to stand beside her. She looked up, though, when he spoke.

Nick met her gaze, his eyes seeming to delve deep inside hers. "When I entered Everlost, I had a little chocolate on my face. It spread, and spread, until it consumed me. Your baby is the same for you. It's the one thing you don't want to remember, but is impossible to forget."

"Awesome pep talk," Josie muttered, finding it less difficult than usual to slip from the fog of her repetitive thoughts. "So I get consumed by my baby? Great, just great."

Nick sighed, shaking his head. "If you let me help you, maybe... maybe we can find a way to change things.

Josie bit her lip, then frowned. "No. I don't need your help."

Expression downcast, Nick nodded once. Then he left the room, planning to return soon to try again. He also had a letter to read... from Allie.


	5. Chapter 5

Brad followed his mother through unfamiliar terrain, trying to keep up with her relentless pace. Even her feet, sinking into the ground, didn't seem to slow her down. She walked and walked, not stopping even when Brad was beyond exhausted. The speed and energy certainly wasn't the same for him.

"M-mommy, please," he begged, shouting so that she could hear him. She ignored him, though. That's when Brad reached the deadspot.

There was stuff piled everywhere, everything imaginable. His eyes downcast, Brad followed his mother's path through the discarded objects. He saw clothes, toys, cars, furniture... some looking kind of familiar and some totally alien.

"Hurry up!" came his mother's voice. No longer hampered by the soft ground, Brad didn't have to be told twice. He sprinted.

His mouth fell open at the sight before him. A giant blimp floated above, his mother almost to the top of the ladder. Words died in his mouth - "how," "why," "what..." until Brad stopped trying to talk and started climbing.

Brad's mother was already piloting the great airship when he made it inside. Except for a lone bucket, which rolled around hitting walls, the room was empty. His mother was focused on the controls and didn't look up.

Nervously, he crept up behind her. "Mom?"

She didn't respond for several minutes, flying the blimp across the seemingly endless deadspot. Then, finally, she said, "Welcome to the Hindenburg."

Brad, not knowing the story behind this ship's fiery crossing, stared around in awe. Finally, he managed to form words. "How... how did you-"

"Know?" she asked. "Because not all Afterlights stay in Everlost. I thought it was gone, gone forever. But look at me, thirty-six and back again." His mother briefly shook her head. "I don't know how you did it. Adults don't enter Everlost. It's simply not how this world works. But somehow... somehow, Brad, you defeated the universe."

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A/N: Who is his mother? Guesses?


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